Doesn't Harry breaking the Elder Wand make Dumbledore's death pointless?

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I realize it's been a while since the movie came out, but the reason Dumbledore planned his death was to make the Elder Wand lose it's power. Harry just breaks it in half. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.135.185.105‎ (talk • contribs).

I assume it was meant to be symbolic to the more casual viewer that Harry is making sure that no one would ever use the wand again. It works fine to say that in print, but something more visual is required for the screen. And wasn't Dumbledore's plan more to have someone who wouldn't be affected as much by his death (Snape) kill him instead of a purer soul (Malfoy)? I mean, he was going to die at the end of the year anyway. 1337star 22:07, October 22, 2011 (UTC)

The breaking of the Elder wand is not canonical. I don't believe that Harry could have broken it. When it would be so easy, why hasn't Dumbledore done it himself shortly before he died or begged Snape to do it after his death? That it is more impressive in the film to break the wand - Yes, that it is. Why should JKR let Harry say: When I am once dead without being defeated the power is broken, when he can do it with only breaking the wand? That's only for the film for a greater impression. Harry granger 22:18, October 22, 2011 (UTC)

The breaking of the elder wand is canon in the movie canon, and movie canon is clearly what the original question was about. Even in the book canon though, where was it even remotely suggested that the elder wand was unbreakable? It is just a piece of wood. Yes, it is the most powerful wand in the world, but that does not change the fact that it is just a wooden stick with some thestral hair in it. Dumbledore didn't know when he was going to die, and he still needed a wand. Asking Snape to break his wand would have been a weird request, and he assumed the wand would lose its power when Snape killed him anyway. The idea also wasn't that Malfoy had a purer soul than Malfoy. Snape has probably had plenty of time to feel remorse for the crimes he committed while working for Voldemort. He certainly felt plenty when Lily died. Snape, however, knew that Dumbledore wanted to die and would die anyway. Snape was essentially committing Euthanasia, which did harm his sould in the way that murder would have. Dumbledore's death was still necessary because he was going to die anyway, and he wanted Snape to remain an effective spy. If Snape hadn't killed him than Malfoy would have, ripping his own soul, or one of the death eaters would have, and Snape would have been found out.

Dumbledore knew that Voldemort would at some point find out about the twin cores between his and Harrys wand. He would then seek a more powerful wand to overcome this connection - the Elder Wand. Since Dumledore had it already, he wanted to break its power by not being defeated. By asking Snape to kill him, by planning this, Dumbledore intended that he - as the Wands owner - would not be defeated, so the Elder Wand should have lost its power. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 178.190.152.219 (talk • contribs).

No no everyone here is a little mistaken. So the plan Dumbledore concieved was never to destroy the wand merely to ensure the dark lord would not have an easy time finding it. When Dumbledore found out about the horcruxes(cruxi? or like "sheep"??) and their respective locations he came in contact with Marvalo Gaunt's ring. In his humbris he could not resist the urge to put it on and thus fell right into the ring's booby trap ie its death curse. The powerful magic of the ring was such that any who came into contact with it who put it on would be poisoned magically like with the cursed necklace. Sadly Dumbledore disregarded this warning and was cursed to the extent that not even he and Snape combined were able to do anything more than to contain the curse's spread throughout his body prolonging his death long enough to sort out his final affairs. So Dumbledore knew he was dying soon, he also knew Voldemort would have wanted the elder wand and since the wand has no real additional power unless it is won in a duel he knew eventually Riddle would come knocking. The idea was that the dark lord couldn't win it from him if he was already dead......at least mostly.......since Voldemort eventually did find that out he needed to duel the wand's owner by having Snape kill him it would make it seem that Severus had possession of the wand's allegiance and would not have suspected that poor incompetent Draco was the real owner. 67.183.100.160 09:13, June 21, 2012 (UTC)

I think that the movie does get it wrong when it comes to the breaking of the wand, partly because it keeps an event such as Snape killing Dumbledore the same and that makes it so that a later event such as the breaking of the elder wand does not make sense. in the book Harry fixes his own wand and throws the other wand away so, if he dies a natural death the wands power is broken. i agree with Harry granger that the elder wand was probably unbreakable or else Dumbledore would have done it. in the book though Harry does not break it. Also, i disagree with 67.183.100.160 that Dumbledore's plan was to make the elder wand just hard to find. i think that his plan was to break the power of the wand. however i do think that brilliant as Dumbledore was, he too can make mistakes and that he thought, as Voldemort thought, that you had to kill the owner in order to defeat them and that a mere disarming spell would not do it. in short it was the movie that made the mistake and his breaking of the wand was very pointless.Master harry potter fan 20:06, June 21, 2012 (UTC)

Very late answer, but you are all wrong. Dumbledore never broke the Elder Wand because he knew it would have to be used to kill Voldemort. Remember how Harry's wand acted of it's own accord against Voldemort even when Voldemort was using Lucius' wand, a wand that was not the brother of Harry's? That's because, regardless of whichever wand Voldemort used, a part of him was in Harry (a piece of his soul) and a part of Harry was in Voldemort (he took Harry's blood in the Goblet of Fire to fully come back to life). That means that no matter what wand was EVER used, they wouldn't be able to kill each other. True, it's makes it safer for Harry, but it also means that Harry would never be able to kill Voldemort in return. Not unless there was an even more powerful wand.. The Elder Wand.

Dumbledore also allowed Draco to disarm him of the Elder Wand so that it's allegiance would be transfered to him, not Snape as Voldermort assumes. They both planned this in advance as an added precaution so that Voldemort using the wand wouldn't be as powerful as he thought it would be. Dumbledore didn't want the wand to ever lose it's power, at least not until Harry had been rid of the piece of Voldemort's soul that lived inside him.

In regards to Snape killing Dumbledore, he did so because Dumbledore was going to linger and suffer before the curse finally killed him. Snape killing him quickly was a mercy. But Dumbledore also wanted his death to mean something and to help the cause. The Elder Wand losing power, like the people above assume, is not what he intended but to place Snape firmly in Voldemort's trust of which there was still some lingering doubts. What is the greatest show of loyalty anyone could do? Killing the most powerful wizard and greatest threat and opposition to Voldemort (after Harry), of course. This act showed Voldemort that there could be no lingering doubts about Snape's allegiance and allowed him to continue acting as a spy.

Back to the wand, after the defeat of Voldemort is when the Elder Wand can finally be broken and it's power can be lost. This ensures that Harry can finally live the normal, peaceful life he always wanted without having to worry about power-hungry wizards seeking him out and also insures that no one, good or bad, will ever be able to weild the sort of power the Elder Wand is capable of again.